Location

Neighborhood in south western Brooklyn, adjoining Bay Ridge, Borough Park and Coney Island and bounded to the north by 61st Street, to the east by McDonald Avenue, to the south by Gravesend Bay, and to the west by 14th Avenue.

Description

Bensonhurst derives its name from Arthur W. Benson, the former president of Brooklyn Gas. Between 1835 and 1850 Benson divided the farmland into lots that were sold in the following decades as part of the newly created suburb of Bensonhurst.  Its main thoroughfare, 86th Street between roughly 14th Avenue and Stillwell Avenue, is lined with predominantly small, Italian family-owned businesses—many of which have remained in the same family for several generations—and is straddled by the elevated BMT West End Line of the New York City Subway.

Currently the neighborhood is undergoing a transformation; many of the original houses dating back over 90 years ago are being torn down and replaced by three-story brick apartment buildings and multi-family dwellings. As a result, Bensonhurst is becoming a more integrated neighborhood as more diverse populations have moved in. Visitors from throughout the New York City metropolitan area flock to the neighborhood each year in late August or early September to take part in the colorful Santa Rosalia Festival, held on 18th Avenue from Bay Ridge Parkway (75th Street) to 69th Street.